that is the quote from majority leader harry reid. however, that is not exactly the case. the constitution does grant congress the power to spend. no money shall be drawn from the treasury but by consequence of appropriations made by law. now the bylaw is of very interesting way to approach it as well. when members of congress and these year marks to the appropriations bill it is not in this statute. they are added in what is called committee reports. so it is really an extra legal way of spending money. the agencies ignored these year marks at their peril because the appropriations committees make it very clear that if they don't fund the earmarks they will cut their budget the following year. that was literally what happened when citizens against government waste back in 1988 and 1989. lifted all of the unauthorized programs and projects that were in the appropriations bills. technically they should not be funded by the administration. well, he got some phone calls and we even got a letter from the appropriations committee chairman saying if you ever come up with such a